International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

A test designed to screen for Down's syndrome as early as ten weeks after conception is ready for clinical use, new maternal and newborn health research has shown.

Scientists led by Drs Jacob Canick and Glenn Palomaki at Women & Infants Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in the US found the DNA-based technique can correctly identify 98.6 per cent of cases of the condition.

Using the blood test could reduce the number of risky assessments women go through unnecessarily, with as many as one in every 30 mums-to-be currently agreeing to undergo chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis only to find out their child does not suffer from Down's syndrome.

"If this new test is used as we've described, nearly all women with a normal pregnancy could avoid an invasive diagnostic procedure and its associated anxiety, cost and potential for foetal loss," Dr Palomaki stated.

The research is published in Genetics in Medicine and follows four papers recently printed in journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynaecology warning the guidelines used to identify miscarriages may not be accurate enough to avoid aborting healthy foetuses.

Posted by Alexandra George